hi everyone - hope you are all well, thanks for all your messages and emails, keep them coming, its great hearing fom you all! 

well whats happened in the past few days... gaz and ali arrived and spent 2 days with us before flying to oz, hope you both landed safely!  the weather was pretty poo while they were hear so didn't get up to much but it was lovely catching up and hearing all about their travels.  It was bit upsetting saying bye, really hit me that we arn't actually on holiday and will have to say bye to my parents soon too! 

well we finally did something touristy yesterday, we went to see the sanctuary of truth, which is a huge towering castle, intricately carved in teak set in the grounds by the seashore in pattaya.  It is 100 metres high and measures 100 metres in length too, it is 26 years old and they are still adding to it.  The structure represents the truth that is shown through the Sanctuary and the relationship between human beings and the universse, which are father, the mother, the earth, the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars.  It also mixes four religions from Cambodia, thai, chinese and indian. 

It was quite impressive, what made me laugh was they made us wear hard hats which for anyone who has ever been to thailand will realise is hilarious as they are not saftey consious in the slightest! 

There was a dolphin show too and i fed the dolphins (will upload video later), while si and mum fed bananas to the elephants! 

We went shopping afte that and then ran the gauntlet through pattaya as songkran as started in full force, we wee absolutley drenched and covered in flour when we got back to condos! 

the thais wear hawaii type shirts all over songkran so we have all entered into the spirit and bought a shirt each ready for the last day on the 19th!  I will probably update then after the festivities have ended. 

si has started his PADI course today, only cost 200 pounds.  i am just doing a one day course tomorrow with him to see if i like it, if i do i will do the 4 days with si.  hes going to be shattered though as he had to be at the shop for 9am and its 5.45pm now and hes still not back, we arn't used to doing much but sunbathing, reading and dozing!

anyway hope you are all ok and will speak soon!  we are defo leaving here for bangkok 23rd april! 

love to you all shell and si xxxx